Wisconsin man who killed 3 Girl Scouts and one of their mothers in hit-and-run after 'huffing' from an aerosol canister pleads guilty
CHIPPEWA COUNTY, WISCONSIN: A Wisconsin man has pleaded guilty to killing three young Girl Scouts, as well as the mother of one of the victims, in a hit-and-run case last year. He was intoxicated when he plowed his vehicle into the victims, and critically injured another girl.
Colten Treu, 22, was arrested in November 2018 after he drove his Ford F-150 pickup truck into a group of Girl Scouts as they were picking up trash along a rural road outside Lake Hallie. Treu then fled from the scene, according to the Daily Mail.
The accident killed Jayna Kelley, 9, Autumn Helgeson, 10, Haylee Hickle, 10, all fourth-graders and members of Girl Scout Troop 3055 in Chippewa Falls, and Haylee's mother Sara Jo Schneider, 32. Madalyn Zwiefelhofer, 10, was also critically injured and spent three weeks recovering in the hospital.
The authorities tracked down Treu by following a "fresh fluid trail" that started at the scene of the accident and led them to an apartment that the 22-year-old shared with his friend John Stender Jr. Both of them turned themselves in a few hours later.
During questioning, Treu admitted he and Stender had been "huffing" computer keyboard cleaner before they got into his pickup truck and claimed he "lost control of the vehicle and fishtailed after Stender grabbed the steering wheel from him".
Stender contested those version of events and said he had taken the steering wheel to correct Treu's driving, which had angered the 22-year-old and caused him to yell and violently grab the wheel back. This resulted in the truck swerving and hitting the five victims, Stender said, and that the next thing he remembered was "waking up down the road".
Treu initially pleaded not guilty to 11 charges, but ultimately agreed to a plea deal where six of them would be dropped. Chippewa County District Attorney Wade Newell said he had offered the deal so the victims' families would not have to endure the trauma of a lengthy trial. This past week, Treu pleaded no contest to four counts of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle and one count of hit-and-run causing great bodily harm at the Chippewa County Court.
Newell did not reveal how much prison time he will be seeking at Treu's sentencing, which is scheduled for March, though each of the homicide convictions carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison. It is likely to be an extensive one, as Judge James Isaacson had warned the 22-year-old before he entered his plea that he could make the sentence for each charge consecutive to each other and that he does not have to adhere to the recommendations of any of the attorneys.
Treu will remain in jail until his sentencing hearing after Isaacson revoked his $2,50,000 cash bond.